Babis To ‘Personally’ Monitor Justice Ministry

Prague, July 11 (CTK) – Jan Knezinek may keep heading the Czech Justice Ministry for long if he “performs well” as the new minister, PM Andrej Babis (ANO) said while introducing Knezinek in the post today, adding that he personally will pay more attention to the justice sector than before.

Knezinek (for ANO) told journalists that he wants to closely cooperate with all legal professions so that the ministry’s decisions are generally acceptable.

He also wants to continue introducing the e-justice project and focus on the ministry’s communication with lawmakers.

Knezinek, 39, a lawyer by training who has been a deputy head of the Government Legislative Council so far, has for most of his professional life worked at the Government Office, but he said he is not going to bring aides from there to the Justice Ministry.

“I am not considering bringing in anyone. The [ministry] team is compact and well functioning,” he said.

On Tuesday, Babis chose Knezinek as a replacement for Tatana Mala (ANO), who resigned as justice minister over plagiarism allegations on Monday.

At the inauguration ceremony today, Babis did not unambiguously say whether he expects Knezinek to stay in the post for the whole election term, i.e. until late 2021.

“As far as Minister Knezinek’s [length of] tenure is concerned, we will only see how it will look like. I will keep my fingers crossed for him,” Babis said.

He said there are lots of candidates who could do the justice minister’s job.

The minister should mainly be a manager and a communicative man who would “transform words into deeds,” Babis said.

President Milos Zeman appointed Knezinek minister on Tuesday, on the eve of parliament’s vote of confidence in the new minority cabinet of ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD).

On this occasion, Knezinek said his short-term priority is the promotion of the bills proposed by the ministry. His long-term priorities include the work on new civilian, court and penal codes.